In 1897 perfume makers Grossmith created a ‘Victorian bouquet’ in commemoration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. Now Grossmith’s current owner, Simon Brooke, will tell all about this ‘rare collection of exotic odours culled from the flora of the British Empire’. You will also have the opportunity to smell Grossmith’s ‘remastered’ perfumes and to examine examples from their archive of heritage bottles, advertisements and perfume cards.

£12. Book online at www.hrp.org.uk/adultlearning or call us on 0844 482 7799.

Polo Blue Cologne, the fragrance for men by Ralph Lauren, was a big part of my freshman year experience at Stanford University. That year, I lived in a double in between two pairs of males and across the hall from another pair. I categorized them as the Computer Science boys, the Research boys, and the Country Club boys. They were all brilliant in their own way (especially the one neighbor who practiced intense substance abuse and killed me on every exam – so unfair). Because I recognized people by their personal smell, I harbored a distinct olfactory memory of each of them.

Tucked away in the corner of Bergdorf’s Beauty & Fragrance Department lies the chic and elegant Goodman’s Cafe. This past weekend, close to 50 fragrance enthusiasts from around the world gathered there for a very special breakfast and Sniffapalooza Master Class with the esteemed perfume house of Houbigant. Founded in 1775, Houbigant was the perfumer to Napoleon, Marie Antoinette and Queen Victoria. Now owned by the Perris family, siblings Gian Luca and Elisabetta presented the history of company and took us on a scented journey through each of their iconic fragrances. Fougere Royale (1882) was the first fragrance created from an idea – to recreate the scent of forest ferns. Notes of Bergamot, Lavender, Rose, Geranium, Oak Moss, and Coumarin (isolated from the Tonka Bean – a revolutionary accomplishment!) combined to establish Fougere Royale as the first fragrance in modern perfumery.

Please join us as we enter the rare and luxurious world of Houbigant for a Special-Edition Master Class on Saturday, June 16, from 8:30 am to 10:30 am. We will convene at one of the world’s most elegant emporiums – BERGDORF GOODMAN for a private breakfast at Goodman’s Cafe on the Beauty Level. And much more than a Master Class, our event is also a highly exclusive premiere of the first new fragrance worthy of the name Houbigant in 50 years – the spectacular Oranger En Fleurs!Click for further details and to register!

I’m slightly obsessed with the Diamond Jubilee festivities happening now across the pond. I’ve been following the covered events, both televised and online. In a spare moment, I can be found searching Twitter and Instagram for #DiamondJubilee tagged photos.

How exciting to see the flotilla of 1,000 boats sailing down the River Thames. Just a few weeks ago my hubby and I walked over the Millennium Bridge, crossing the Thames from St. Paul’s Cathedral to the Tate Modern. If only we had planned our trip abroad for this week instead…

Several fragrance houses have joined in the excitement by creating perfumes commemorating this rare occasion (the last Diamond Jubilee celebration occurred back in 1897 for Queen Victoria!)

It was quite a delight this morning to find an email from Aedes in my inbox, announcing the new conceptual Play Series from Comme des Garçons. I clicked on the winsome bottles – all googly eyes and hearts – and was instantly whisked to the page where I could read a brief overview of the trio, learn all of their scent notes, and discover the identity of the perfumer – Antoine Maisondieu – who has been a favorite since we met him at the Givaudan labs during our Sniffapalooza trip to Paris several summers ago.